Reviews

Artists: Lupen Crook, Electric Strawbs, The Dealers
Venue: Rochester Sweeps Festival
Town: Rochester, Kent
Date: 1/05/09 - 4/05/09
Websites:
Festival: www.medway.gov.uk/index/leisure/events/sweepsfestival.htm
Lupen Crook: http://www.myspace,com/lupencrook
Strawbs: http://www.strawbsweb.co.uk
The Dealers: http://www.thedealersonline.com

It is a short walk from Strood Civic Centre car park (the recommended parking area for the Sweeps Festival) to Rochester, but a very scenic one. Strood and Rochester lie on opposite sides of the River Medway, and with the picturesque castle nestled on the hill at Rochester, the walk over the bridge is lovely.

The Sweeps festival lasts for four days over the May Bank Holiday, but owing to constraints such as distance and time we were only able to go for the Sunday evening and the Monday day time.

It is a wonderful family occasion, run throughout the town, with processions, morris dancing, round-abouts, big wheels, and music, the latter being the main reason why we were there.

The festival was originally a day off for chimney sweeps, from which the legend of touching sweeps so that good luck would rub off on to you derived. This was adaped to kissing sweeps, but this didn't sit well with the conservative Victorian tastes, so it died out. The festival was re-introduced in the 1980s, and this was the 26th in modern times.

Whilst there, we explored the castle, and visited the Cathedral, the smallest in England. Inside, the choir were practising, so we sat for a while to listen to them. The whole cathedral was filled with the glorious sound of choral music. Very impresive.

In the castle grounds, a marquee was erected for the main musical events. Sunday night's performance started with a guy called Lupen Crook.

Lupen is part of a group known as Lupen Crook and the Murderbirds, but is quite capable of performing in his own right. He's a very accomplished guitarist, with some good songs, though there were a few too many expletives for my tastes. I'm afraid I don't know his material, so was not able to keep a setlist, but his voice was reminiscent of Starsailor.

Apparently, (though for some reason it escaped my notice), Lupen has striking green eyes.

He was well received by the audience, many of whom seemed to know him. Up to now he hadn't registered on my radar, but I'll certainly look out for him again.

Headline artists for the Sunday were the Electric Strawbs. This was the first UK gig with their current line-up, though they have recently toured Canada.

Back in the 70's, Dave Cousins wrote a song called "Round and Round" which contained the line '...for we were just the product of the ever spinning wheel - Round and round we go.' Very prophetic. The screw has turned another turn. Rick Wakeman was originally the Strawbs' keyboard player but left to join Yes. However, Rick no longer plays with Yes and has been repaced by his son, Oliver. Now that John Hawken has retired from the Strawbs, they have completed the circle by borrowing Oliver back from Yes. (Yes fans will be pleased to know that Oliver will still continue playing with botn bands and has just announced a new Yes tour).

To play keyboards for both Yes and the Strawbs, is bound to invite comparison with his father, and as Rick is one of the best loved keyboard players in the world, only a very brave man would risk the comparison. In my humble opinion, Oliver stands the comparison well. Rick was a classically trained musician, but many of the Strawbs' songs are played in unusual guitar tunings, meaning that Rick developed his famous style of playing by fitting extra notes in between to make bridge the gap. Oliver imitated his father perfectly.

To misquote another Strawbs' title, shine on silver son.

Having said that, I did miss John Hawken. Although John can play the high energy rock I partcularly loved his calm, gentle pieces. Somehow the song "Autumn" didn't seem quite the same without John playing "Heroine's Theme".

Having Oliver in the band though has given the Strawbs the opportunity to play a few different songs from their vast back catalogue including the phenomenal "Where is This Dream of Your Youth".

Guitarist Dave Lambert's beatiful song, "The Winter and the Summer" has also been added to the set list.

Set list was:

Lay Down
Sheep
New World
Hangman and the Papist
The Winter and the Summer
The River/ Down by the Sea
The Broken Hearted Bride
Out in the Cold/ Round and Round
Autumn
Hero and Heroine
Where is This Dream of Your Youth

The weekend was brought to a conclusion on the Monday with The Dealers.

They played two full sets, and ran out of time for an encore, as the main procession was due to start through the town. They had got up at four o'clock that morning, but even after perfoming in front of the hot spot lights they still both looked very fresh.

They played a fairly similar set list to Chatham, though they also did a couple of covers, including Leonard Cohen's "Lover, Lover, Lover" and Tom Wait's "Chocolate Jesus". Having covered the Dealers at Chatham and ExCeL, I won't go into too much detail again. Other than to thank them for yet another brilliant gig.

The Monday concert was free. When it began, the tent was filled mainly with fans who had seen them before, but as the sound drifted out round the castle grounds more and more people turned up. A very good turn out.

Rochester Sweeps is where it all began for the Dealers. Four years ago they started out by busking during the festival and now they are the headline act. I guess the luck of the sweeps has rubbed off on them.

Pete Bradley